Job Discussion Forums

[eurobound]

Anyone lived/living in this city who can tell me what they think of the place and what their life is like there?

And how about 2,500 p/m to live here with accomodation included? Good enough to survive without being thrifty?

Thanks.

[Master Shake]

That depends on whether you mean 'pounds' or 'Polish zloty'.

[eurobound]

[Mattthemartian]

[sharter]

2,500 in a place that's twice the price of the U.S. for clothes, electronic goods, Scotch, hotels you'd stay in....ha ha......enjoy third world poverty on that salary. Gas is 6-7$ a gallon. Running a mobile is day light robbery. Trust me...it's really really hard to live on less than 150 a day.

Europe....all of Europe is very expensive now.....especially if you come from that cheap place called the USA.

[Master Shake]

[eurobound]

[sparks]

[Master Shake]

[greggie]

Hi Eurobound, 2500pln a month?im guessing thats at Jupis school, i know some of the teachers that have worked there, and never heard anything negative from them. Seems to have a good reputation for looking after his teachers and helping them when needed. Koszalin in winter is like most Polish towns gray and dull, but recently a shopping centre opened which is ok. One way of loking at the salary is comparing it to IH which is in the same town and a new teacher there is given 1600pln including accommodation, so you will clear 900pln more. With the Polytechnic in the town its pretty easy to get private lessons too.

[eurobound]

Thanks for the above advice, Greggie. No, it wasn't the school you mention. Either way, I passed on this job after discovering that the accomodation offered was in THE SAME HOUSE as the couple who owned and ran the school.

I have no idea whether or not this makes them a less reputable school, and I don't care; I simply don't want to live with the people I work for. Can't imagine anything worse in fact.

I'm still seriously considering Poland for this September. I just visited Krakow for five days and loved it, though I know all too well that living and working in a place is different than simply holidaying there.

However, after taking this trip, and after reading the thread about wages in Poland that got bumped recently, I'm starting to question the good sense of taking a position paying 2,500 zloty a month.

Thanks again.

[sharter]

I've worked for IH, UAM, Linguarama, JDJ, Poznan University (UAM) and done all the privates, journalism and writing gigs over the years-all in Poland.

Unless you sit in your kawalerka, studying Polish, eating rolls and many potato based meals, 2,500Zl in nowhere near enough to live in Poland these days....even if they throw in Buckingham Palace.

15 freakin years (with lengthy gaps in the Middle East) I've spent going back and forth to Poland. I've lived in Warsaw, Bydgoszcz, Torun and Poznan. I was there 6 weeks ago.

Native speakers-are a dying race in Polska. The locals provide a lot of well-qualified teachers, all of whom seem to have MAs and have lived/worked in the UK. There's no premium for being a native speaker any more. In fact, according to most of the Poles I know, many of the native speakers just let themselves down when they get on the boozing, sharing train.

Sorry I quoted Scotch in my price list. Let's try shoes average 300Zl, Levis 300Zl, a kebab w bulce 12Zl (nice once a week but not every day), beer 8-12 Zl. My god, I could quote really cheap prices but then again I wouldn't want to spend my time in places that charge those prices and buy my clothes in the Russian Market. Most native speakers in Poland these days are scruffs....the jumper and jeans brigade. Poland is over for all except the one-yearers and those who have working partners with family support. I know a few native speakers who got married and the Polish side of the family gave them a flat....how times have changed.

I'd go further and say that Europe is not viable any more....certainly not mid to long-term.

[delphian-domine]

[simon_porter00]

Looks like the scare-mongerers are back in town and tarring all things native speaker-wise with a great big fat brush.

Life in Poland is really quite simple when you come down to it:
Is it possible to earn a good wage (relative to Poland)? Yes.
How much is that wage? A conservative starting wage would be 3500zł p/m, after a few years it's easy to make 5,000zł+ (in villages/smaller towns it'll be less)
Should you come here and expect to earn millions and live like a king? No (unless of course you fancy yourself as an entrepreneur and then make a success of your plan)
Are native speakers still wanted? Yes.
If I come for one year to drink booze and shag women, will I enjoy it? No - you'll quickly get turfed out by the school as they'll see you for the fraud you are.
If I come to Poland and I'm a sensible chap/lass, have got the necessary teaching qualifications and stay for a while, will I enjoy it? Yes.
Are Polish people the same as people from the UK/USA/Oz etc? No. You're in POLAND, Polish people are DIFFERENT - you'll get to know about this when you arrive.
If I earn 2000gbp/usd per month and spend 3000gbp/usd in my home country, am I an idiot? Yes - so please don't expect to be less of an idiot if you earn 4000zl and you lifestyle costs you 5000zl. Some things in Poland are more expensive, some are less - that's just the way it is.
Are all native speakers scruffy oiks and penniless? No, no all. Idiots are, sensible people who care about their profession are not.




Further to this, Sharter is (I'm guessing from the details he posted above), part of the old school brigade that came over in the glory years of the 90's when native speakers could earn whatever they wanted, live like kings and have Poland at their feet because they are a "native speaker".

Even though the ESL world has moved on, some attitudes have not. We call this "native speaker syndrome". Go to a native speaker haunt in any town/city and you'll see 40-60year old men moaning about the good ol' times about how they were earning a gazillion zł per hour and nowadays Poland sucks because it's soo damned expensive.

The world moves on, as does the ESL teaching profession. Anyone coming to Poland now thinking that they can live like a king requires sectioning for severe lack of awareness of today's world, specifically today's Poland. Warsaw will become the gateway to the East, the last major capital before Russia. Warsaw is expanding at a demented rate because of the need to do so either in terms of commerce or for residential reasons. Increased demand leads to increased prices naturally. However, it's worthy of note that bread can be bought for less money in Warsaw than a small village on the Ukrainian border. More people = more choice from competing suppliers = cheaper prices in some market areas.

Anyway enough from me, got to go to my personal trainer in the Marriott hotel's gym for my daily workout with the celebs because I'm a native speaker......

[eurobound]